Reflective practice

Reflective practice in teaching and evaluation

Macquarie
University encourages scholarly, reflective practice in all areas of academic
work, including teaching and curriculum development.

What is reflection?

There is
no agreed definition of reflection in the literature however most approaches
include the idea of “purposeful thought” (Loughran, 2006) about beliefs,
thoughts or actions, undertaken in order to improve or learn.

In the
context of teaching, we think of reflective practice as the process of deliberately thinking about how and what
we teach, with a view to enhancing its effectiveness for student learning. It
involves self-review and self-assessment, and a willingness to learn and adapt,
and is therefore an intrinsic element of quality evaluation. A teacher who
integrates this intentional approach with the exploration, application and/or
production of scholarship in learning and teaching can claim to be engaged in scholarly, reflective practice in learning
and teaching.

Teaching
strategies and learning activities often use terms that are based on
reflection. Depending on your discipline/subject or study area you might be
more familiar with terms such as: analysis, review, evaluation, critical
thinking, investigation, making sense, making meaning, contemplation,
contemplative practice, meditation, introspection or felt knowing.

Professional
recognition for teaching excellence and curriculum innovation (whether
internally, via promotion, or externally via grants, awards and teaching
fellowships) is increasingly based on the ability to plan, implement,
articulate, evaluate and reflect upon achievements and initiatives in these
areas, and to substantiate each step with reference to an evidence base
(scholarship).

Resources to support scholarly reflective practice in
learning and teaching

A range of resources, hints and tips to support scholarly reflective
practice can be found in the Teaching and Curriculum Evaluation iLearn site (in development, July 2017). These will
be useful if you are seeking to: